John McClane Is My Hero

After monday's reading: "Subject Of Visual Culture" and the discussion about new cinema, it occurred to me that not only do scenarios in real life make sense to us because we see them in movies, but vice versa. Many movies play upon social issues that are prevalent during the time period that they are made, and it allows the movie to pull in the viewer and make them see the story in a certain way. Recently I was watching Die Hard, and despite it being marketed as a big blockbuster action film, there are many subtleties throughout the movie that evoke certain emotions from the viewer, whether they realize it or not.

For example, in the movie, we want to sympathize with the main character, John McClane. He is a hard working NYC cop, and he has flown across the country (even though he is deathly afraid of heights) to try and work on his marriage with his wife who has moved to LA for her career. Right away the movie plays into soft spots because we should value his effort to fix his marriage, and we should feel bad for him because he is clearly so far out of his element in LA. We want him to succeed so he can put his family back together. And this emotional set up starts before any of the action has even begun.

When Die Hard was made in the late 80's, there was a prevalent fear of foreign companies, specifically Japan, infiltrating our country and bringing their corporations onto "our land". Naturally, in the movie, the corporation that has torn the family apart by bringing

McClane's wife across the country is a Japanese corporation. This further contributes to our support to John McClane's cause to win back his wife. The movie is clearly subconsciously playing into the protective values we hold of our country.

Then, to add to our fear of foreigners, the terrorists are from eastern Europe and are portrayed as very menacing and evil.There was also one American terrorist, but he was black, which plays into our country's longstanding issue with race. Obviously, we want McClane, our all-american hero, to defeat these evil foreign intruders and save our country. So even though this action packed movie was a huge blockbuster hit, there are underlying reasons that it was so successful. As viewers, we are affected by the world around us, and we bring those feelings and viewpoints into movies that we see. And that is why everyone that saw Die Hard could all relate to McClane and support his valiant fight, both with his marriage and against the terrorists.